How we look after your information
This notice explains what we collect when you use this website, why, who sees it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have over it. We have tried to write it in plain words.
Last updated 30 October 2026.
Who we are
Vasco Study Abroad is run by two companies in the same group, working together:
- Vasco Medics International Ltd, 11 Briarfield Road, Timperley, Altrincham, Cheshire WA15 7DG, United Kingdom. Registered in England & Wales, company no. 11138067. Registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, registration no. ZB341751.
- Vasco International Academy and Consultancy, SRK Building, Market Road, Pala, Kottayam, Kerala 686575, India. Licence no. BFIF01-M050100-00087-2024.
Together they decide how your information is used, and both are responsible for protecting it. A written agreement between them sets out who does what. To ask anything about your information, email [email protected].
What we collect, and why
| When | What | Why, and our lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| You book counselling | Your name, email, phone number, where you want to study, your level of study, which office suits you, anything you write in the message box, and your consent with the time you gave it. | To contact you and give you the counselling you asked for. Basis: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time. |
| An agent or sub-agent introduces you | Your name, contact details, what you want to study and where, and the stage your application has reached. | To counsel you and run your application. Your details are visible to the agent who introduced you, and — where that agent was themselves introduced to us by another agent — the name, course, university and stage (but not your contact details) are visible to that agent too, because they are accountable to us for the introduction. Basis: your consent, and our legitimate interest in running the referral arrangements we have with our agents. |
| You create an account to apply | Your name, email address, phone number and a password. Nothing else at this point. Your documents are asked for on the next page, after you have agreed to how we use them. | So you can make an application in your own time and come back to a half-finished one. Basis: steps taken at your request before entering into a contract, and your consent to be contacted about it. |
| You work through the application | The course you want (or, if we do not list it, what you are looking for in your own words), what you tell us about your qualifications and English, how you intend to pay, and your confirmation that you can fund the course without relying on part-time work — each with the date you gave it. | To advise you honestly and to put a complete application to a university. We record each stage you worked through and the date, and — for anybody who applied before October 2026 — which stages you told us you had already done elsewhere, because that is a different thing and should not be written down as if it were the same. Basis: steps taken at your request before entering into a contract. |
| You upload your documents | Your CV, passport page, qualification certificates and transcripts, letters from employers, English test results, and anything else a university asks for. | To check which courses you can apply for and to make the application to the university, or to the admissions service that university uses. Nothing is sent to any university until you have been through every stage of the application and agreed it with us. Basis: steps taken at your request before entering into a contract, and the agreement you give when you create your account. You can ask us to delete them at any time. |
| Your CV is read to save you typing | The text of a CV you upload as a PDF: your qualifications, dates, results, jobs and English test score. | Our own system reads the CV on our own computer and fills in your studies and jobs for you to check. You see every line, correct it or remove it, and nothing is kept until you confirm it. The CV is not sent to any other company to be read, and nothing it finds is used to make a decision about you. Basis: steps taken at your request before entering into a contract. |
| You apply to become an agent | Your name, contact details, business details, where you work and what you tell us about your work, and your consent. | To assess and discuss a possible agency agreement. Basis: your consent, and steps taken at your request before entering into a contract. |
| Any form is sent | A one-way scrambled code made from your internet address (not the address itself), and the type of browser you used. | To stop spam and abuse of the forms. Basis: our legitimate interest in keeping the service safe. |
| You use the free tools | Nothing. The planners and calculators run in your own browser and what you type is not sent to us. The country you choose for currency is remembered in your own browser only, until you close it, so the next tool can use it. It is never sent to us. | — |
Cookies
This website does not use advertising, analytics or tracking cookies, so we do not need to ask you to accept any, and you will not see a cookie banner. If we ever add something like that, we will ask your permission first, and saying no will be as easy as saying yes.
What the site does use is only what it needs to work:
- Staff login cookie — only for our own staff when they sign in to the admin area. Visitors never receive it.
- Agent portal login cookie — only for agents and sub-agents who sign in to their own portal. Students and visitors never receive it.
- Student account login cookie — only if you create an account to make an application. It is what lets you close the page and come back to a half-finished application tomorrow. Visitors who are only reading never receive it.
- Your currency choice — kept in your browser’s temporary session storage so the tools can share it, and deleted when you close the browser.
- Security — our network provider, Cloudflare, may set a strictly necessary cookie to tell real visitors from harmful automated traffic.
Referral codes. An agent who works with us may share a link, or a QR code, that carries their reference code — you can see it in the web address, after ?ref=. If you fill in our form on that page, the code is sent with your enquiry so that the person who helped you is credited. We do not ask you about it and it does not appear as a question on the form, because it is a matter between us and the agent rather than something you should have to remember.
Nothing is stored on your device: the code travels in the web address and in that one form, and when you close the page it is gone. It makes no difference to your application, to the advice you get, or to what you pay — our advice is free either way, and we are paid by universities, not by you. If you would rather no agent were credited for your enquiry, tell us and we will remove it from your record. The form also asks, separately and in your own words, how you came across us and whether anyone recommended you; that answer is yours and we keep it as you give it.
Fonts. The lettering on this site is loaded from Google Fonts. To send it, Google receives your device’s internet address, as with any website you visit. Google does not set cookies for this.
If an agent introduced you
Some students reach us through an education agent. If one introduces you, they give us your name and a way to contact you, and they confirm to us that they told you and that you agreed. We record that confirmation with the date.
Agents can see only the students they introduced. They cannot see any other student, and they are not told anything about a student somebody else introduced. They must use our portal rather than keep your details on spreadsheets or in messaging apps, and they are contractually forbidden from charging you for admission support.
If you would rather we did not deal with you through an agent, tell us and we will handle your application directly.
Photographs
Universities ask for a photograph at the point an unconditional offer is issued. We hold one only for that purpose, and only from that stage. Using your photograph or your story in our own marketing is a separate question that we ask separately: it is always optional, you can say no without it affecting your application in any way, and you can change your mind at any time by telling us.
Who sees it
- Our counsellors and staff in the UK and India, who need it to help you. Every time a record is opened, it is logged.
- Universities and the organisations that process university applications, only when you decide to apply and only what that application needs.
- The company that delivers our email, so we can write to you.
We never sell your information, and we never pass it to anyone for marketing.
Sending information between the UK and India
Because our two offices are in the UK and India, your information may be viewed in both countries. The transfer is covered by a written agreement between the two companies that requires the same standard of protection as UK data protection law.
How long we keep it
We keep an enquiry for two years from when it was made, so that we can help you if you come back to us for a later intake. After that it is deleted. If you become a student we work with, we keep what the law and the university require for as long as they require it, and we will tell you what that is.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:
- give you a copy of the information we hold about you;
- correct anything that is wrong;
- delete your information;
- stop or limit how we use it, or object to how we use it;
- give you your information in a form you can take elsewhere.
You can also withdraw your consent at any time. It is free, and we will reply within one month. Email [email protected].
If you are not happy
Please tell us first, and we will try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this notice
If we change how we use your information, we will update this page and the date at the top.